The Squamidian Report – Apr. 28 / 07

 

Issue #257

 

Also in this issue:

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

Last Sunday was Earth day, apparently. Squamish put on its version of a celebration. The event was cooked up ‘spur of the moment’ with less that a week of planning. It was held down on the Nexin lands at the waterfront by the old pier. There were long-winded speeches about the proposed Sea to Sky trail and conservation and life style. Warren and I were asked if we would perform for the event. Other performers were invited as well. Problem was, we had just 2 days notice and they wanted us as the ‘opening act’. I guess none of the others wanted to put up with the hassles of getting the PA system working right.

 

So we decided we would do it anyway and invited out jamming buddy Neil to join us. That way we could add some of his repertoire to ours. We helped a bit with getting the PA set up and then had to wait while some old guy rambled on and on and on and on and on about community trails. By the time he was done half the people had lost interest and wandered away. By the way; the stage was the equipment float from the company I work for, which no one noticed but it was weird for me. We played for about an hour and then it was time for the next act. However, we enjoyed ourselves and that’s what its all about. Neil’s wife took some pictures so I’ve popped them into a web page. They can be seen at:

http://www.thedougsite.net/Jamming/Earthday.htm

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Well look at that, we got out again on our little dirt bikes. This time we headed up into the area just to the east of the house here, under Garibaldi Park. We’ve been up in there several times and because there had been active logging going on during the winter we decided to check it out. This is the Mashiter Creek area, just outside our door yet wild and rugged as it gets.

 

The clear cutting can’t be seen from the residential areas because the ridge right across from us hides it, and because the people that do the logging don’t want it to be seen. We found large cut bocks with nothing left but stumps and burn piles as well as new logging roads that have been pushed further into the tress. We found lots of roads and trails to ride on. Pics at: http://www.thedougsite.net/Mashiter/Mashiter2.htm

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I’ve got several large projects on the go right now and none of them are any where near being finished. The old shed is completely down but there is still a load of lumber to haul away, and part of the fence on the north side of the property is down. I’ve not had time to finish taking the rest of the fence down or to start putting up the new one. So that means the neighbor’s dog can now jump up and into our back yard. It didn’t take the dog long to figure out that it could and to start taking advantage of the bigger space to explore. Funny thing, the dog was checking out our back deck and discovered a bag of apples by the back door. Apparently this dog likes apples because it stole every one of them. We caught her heading home with the last THREE in her mouth. She ducked in through her dog-door and disappeared. That’s the last we’ve seen of her or the apples.

 

doug

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THE ONTARIO REPORT

 

Hello everyone!

 

Man there’s been a lot of stuff in the news lately to talk about. I’m sure you’ll all remember the farmer from the Guelph area that I talked about a couple of weeks ago. He had built a wind power generator to save money and be environmentally friendly. The gov’t sent in a property assessor and he was told that his taxes were to increase by the same amount per year that he would be saving by having the generator working. I said how unfair I thought this was as I’m sure you remember. Well, they stated on the news the other night that the government rescinded their order and have put a temporary halt to taxing him for the project. This doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods but at least they are rethinking their greedy decision to increase his taxes. Hopefully they will see how shitty their tax idea is and give he and any others in Ontario a break when they undertake such environmentally conscious projects.

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It’s coming, Summer is on the way. I know this because our lawn is in need of a mowing already. I guess I’ll have to pull out the Snapper and see if it starts after spending the winter in the shed. I’m sure it will since it’s a quality mower. This is the time of year that the prolific “Garage Sale” is blossoming on weekends. It’s becoming a more popular mode of ridding your home of its overstock of “collectables”. In fact whole neighbourhoods are getting organized and having their sales en mass. Clyde told me that they are having their annual neighbourhood sale this weekend. I know that it’s always a huge event and I’m sure this year’s will be no different. I wish them success with the sale of Clyde’s collection of Molson Ex bottles. Oops, I guess that’s one collection that will remain in Clyde’s possession. At least until they are empty that is! LOL! Just kidding Clyde! The weather is supposed to be fair this weekend with a 40% chance of rain forecast for the day of their sale. I hope the local weather man is wrong and they have a full day of sunshine for people to walk the streets and check out the driveways full of treasures. The whole town of New Dundee has an annual garage sale every spring, complete with a parade and custom car show in the center of town at the park. We’ve attended this sale for the past 10 years or so and it’s a lot of fun to see what people have to offer. Since Carole and I have quite a collection of our own, we don’t usually see much that catches our fancy. I look for fire department memorabilia such as old extinguishers and hose nozzles. I don’t keep them myself but have purchased a few items to pass on to a friend of mine that does collect fire stuff. I remember finding a 36” long “straight bore” nozzle a few years ago. I think I paid $15.00 for it and when I checked with my friend, he said he could resell it for over a $100.00 so he promptly offered me $75.00 for it. Needless to say, I grabbed the offer for a quick $60.00 profit. Not a bad return on my investment! I’ll have to call my sister who lives in New Dundee and find out when the event is scheduled for this year. I think it’s usually in May. Who knows, it may have been held already and I’ve missed it. I certainly hope not, it’s a lot of fun to attend. Oh well, there’s always other sales to attend, pretty much every weekend from now till late October. Even if that’s all you did all summer you could really keep yourself busy traveling from sale to sale.

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With the weather producing some nice sunny days this past week or so, Adam and I have been able to get out on the motorcycles for a couple of runs. I’m hoping this upcoming week affords us some more nice riding days. We usually wait here in Ontario until late May to do the yard and garden cleanup but this year’s early warm up has given us a head start on that stuff. Let’s hope the nice weather lasts through the summer and fall this year. They say the southern USA is in for a busy hurricane season but they were wrong with a similar prediction last year. Let’s hope the weather watchers are wrong about that again this season.

 

Guess that’s about it for this week.

Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in

The Ontarion Report!

 

Bye for now… GREG.

 

PS: Something To Think About>

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

 

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The Family and the Squamidian sites:

http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca

Have a good one..

the doug

 

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